Walmart's 9 Percent Thursday Jump Is Rare, But Not Unprecedented In The Past Decade

It’s not surprising to see mega-cap stocks like Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN jump 9.0 percent following big earnings beats. But for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT Thursdays post-earnings spike is a rare sight.
 

Walmart delivered huge beats on revenue and earnings in Q1, and the market clearly likes what it sees.

One-day moves this large are rare for Walmart, but they aren’t unprecedented. In fact, the stock booked its biggest one-day loss in 25 years when it fell 10 percent in a single day in October of last year. That big sell-off was in response to the company report that it anticipated its profits would fall by 12 percent over the next four quarters due to heavy investing into e-commerce initiatives.

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The last time Walmart booked a single-day gain greater than 9.0 percent, it was under a completely different set of circumstances. On October 28, 2008, during one of the most volatile periods of the Financial Crisis, the Dow finished the day up 900 points after selling off by more than 500 points in the previous two sessions. On that day, Walmart gained 11 percent.

Thursday’s big move is by far the most volatile earnings reaction Walmart has delivered in recent memory. Prior to today’s move, the biggest one-day earnings reaction for Walmart in the last six quarters was a 4.7 percent gain in Q3 of 2014.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.